Sunshine Travel Burns Chinatown Bus Drivers' Rights!

Boston Chinatown Bus Drivers and the Chinese Progressive Association are battling Sunshine Travel Services over claims of thousands in unpaid wages. Sunshine Travel is a travel and bus transportation company with offices in Boston Chinatown and Quincy, Massachusetts, where many Chinese live. The company provides busing to Mohegan Sun Casino as well as East Coast cities, making revenues of at least $1.5 million per year and is owned by Lorraine Tse.
 
The workers have charged that:
 
•  They were denied proper overtime pay. Sunshine Travel, by issuing checks using three different business names, misreported hours;
 
•  The business steals workers' tips, deducts a "processing fee" from each worker's paycheck that is used to pay the cleaning staff's wage;
 
•  They worked 12-18 hour days without a shift change - but were only paid $100 per day, in violation of minimum wage law. These long days also violated health and safety standards.  Buses were not inspected regularly, and bus repairs were left unfixed.
 
•  Drivers received no benefits and no vacation days, despite working through holidays. They were forced to pay for accidents and damages to buses. Workers describe being forced to keep fake log books that misreported their hours.
 
Recently, Sunshine Travel cut their pay. The drivers are demanding fair wages and schedules, accurate records, and an end to unfair labor practices.  Ms. Tse refuses to meet with them.  Instead, on April 6, Sandy Fong, a paralegal at the lawyer's office representing Ms. Tse, and other Sunshine Travel personnel entered the Chinese Progressive Association in disguise to intimidate and retaliate against the workers by taking their photographs. In addition, Ms. Tse has sued the Chinese Progressive Association for defamation.
 
Workers refused to be intimidated by the owner's action and resumed flyering on Monday. On Thursday, April 30, the Sunshine bus drivers in conjunction with the Immigrant Worker Center Collaborative held a press conference at the Chinatown Gate to continue to put pressure on Ms. Tse. Workers read a statement outlining the unlawful and inhumane conditions they worked under. The statement included a story of how workers were pressured to cover up an accident on the job, being paid $100 a day no matter how many hours they worked, and needing to pay for damages to the vehicles even if it wasn't their fault. Representatives from the Chinese Progressive Association (CPA), Centro Presente and the Massachusetts Coalition for Safety and Health made statements in support of the workers and expressed outrage at the level of exploitation exhibited by Sunshine Travel. The workers continue to call for a meeting with Ms. Tse to negotiate in good faith at a neutral location.
 
 Workers and CPA are asking for support. We urge our readers to support their just demands. Supporters may contact Sunshine Travel through telephone and EMAIL in support of the workers demands and to drop the suit against CPA.
 
Lorraine Tse: 617-695-1989, 617-293-3882
 
Sunshine Travel: 617-695-1820, 617-328-0862; fax: 617-695-3211, 617-328-1819
 
** please RSVP to CPA if you called or emailed **